It took academic turned library officer turned writer Rebecca Higgie 12 years to write her award-winning young adult novel The History of Mischief: a book for book lovers of all ages that won the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award for Western Australian writers aged 18 to 35

In this interview Rebecca talks about the histories behind the history and how these might be used to stimulate classroom discussions, research and writing activities.

CEO Jane Fraser on Kim Scott's literary contribution to Western Australia, which saw him being inducted into the Western Australian Writers Hall of Fame last Friday evening

Hello and welcome to August.

What a month it’s been! Congratulations to our Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards winners and shortlisted authors: Fiona Burrows, Amanda Curtin, Rafeif Ismail, Kathryn Lefroy, Caitlin Maling, Meg McKinlay, Helen Milroy, Holden Sheppard and Ellen van Neerven. We are so proud of you all.

How do you face Father's Day without your dad? Jon Doust, author of the One Boy’s Journey to Man series, tells a story about his father, Stanley, and the gifts Stan left his sons

I met a bloke last week who said his father died 20 years ago and he had never got over it. My father died in 2002 and I can still hear him telling me how to remove the ceiling fan in the bathroom. I’d done it a couple of times before and I was over 50 years old, but that didn’t make any difference. As far as he was concerned I was still ‘bloody hopeless’.

Brendan Ritchie, author of Carousel and Beyond Carousel, talks dystopian futures and Beyond the Dark, an upcoming collection for teachers and students

We were lucky to chat with dystopian aficionado Brendan Ritchie about his chapter in the newly released book Beyond the Dark: Dystopian Texts in the Secondary English Classroom (edited by Patricia Dowsett, Ellen Rees and Alex Wharton, and published by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English). Brendan is well positioned to discuss dystopian fiction, with his Gold Inky Award longlisted debut novel, Carousel, exploring a dystopian Perth. The sequel, Beyond Carousel, continues to explore a post-apocalyptic world while raising pertinent questions about our own reality.

Birds and koalas have caught the attention of Speech Pathology Australia: Helen Milroy and Katie Stewart land a spot on the Book of the Year Awards shortlist

Congratulations to Helen Milroy, author of Backyard Birds and Katie Stewart, author of What Colour is the Sea? for being shortlisted for this year’s Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards.

Former child soldier and author Yuot A Alaak says he hopes his book will teach kids to have the courage to overcome whatever adversity they are facing, knowing that other children around the world are facing much worse

Father of the Lost Boys author and former child soldier Yuot A. Alaak says lived experiences have a lot to teach us. He says giving students the opportunity to enter the lives of refugee children in a war, but from a safe distance, can help build empathy and understanding. In this very special blog post, Yuot and is joined by his father, Mecak A. Alaak, an inspirational teacher working in the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

Jane Fraser CEO explains not-for-profit publishing and shares five free ways to support it

Hello and welcome to June.

You may have noticed we’ve got a picture at the bottom of our newsletter that lets you know we’re a not-for-profit publishing house. So what is not-for-profit publishing?

In Love to Read Local Radio with Fremantle Press, award-winning authors Holden Sheppard and A.J. Betts talk about how to juggle actual writing time with the business of being a writer

A.J. Betts had the idea for Hive eight years before she commenced writing it and 13 years before it was released. In between, she published three books, won an Emmy Award and did a PhD in the topic of wonder. A.J. said the idea for Hive came to her while she was on the Graham Farmer Freeway in Perth: ‘The traffic was really slow and I noticed the drip in the tunnel and I thought, that’s weird … In what situation would a drip be a problem or a danger?’

Rebecca Higgie, inaugural winner of the Fogarty Literary Award and author of The History of Mischief, shares with us her top tips for staying on track with writing and how being in a writing group got her published

In 2015, I was well and truly sick of my book. The History of Mischief had been lingering with me since 2006, and progress was slow. It was often left for months, only for me to return to it, tinker a bit, and then abandon it for another lengthy period of time. I needed something to keep me on track. I needed to be accountable to someone other than myself.

Susan Midalia, Donna Mazza, Emily Paull and Bindy Pritchard talk turning points and the long and short of fiction writing on this week's episode of Love to Read Local Radio with Fremantle Press

What happens when you conference call with four talented Western Australian writers who are equally committed to short fiction as to long? Loads! Hosted by Susan Midalia, this episode of Love to Read Local Radio will give you a wonderful insight into where the urge to write comes from – those turning points in life which compel writers to put words on the page.